Insert directly value for CO2

Question

Hi everyone,

I've the following problem: I know the production of CO2 eq of a flow that is not defined in OpenLca.

How can I insert directly as CO2 eq, and show it in results? I mean without a process associated.

The question is also valid for all the flows that are present in databases but without a process (I haven't understand why).

Thanks

Answer 1

Impacts are calculated by multiplying the elementary flows defined in any process by a factor specified in the impact category/method.

It sounds like you are emitting a flow (which then should be part of the outputs of the process) that is not listed in the respective impact category/method. In that case you could add the (missing) flow to the impact category in the affected impact method and assign a factor to it.

To the second part of the question, we have a base of elementary flows that we have harmonized across different databases. These are always present, and are used in some of the impact methods that we provide as well.

Comments

Thanks a lot for exact answer

Answer 2

Hi Marco, per definition flows do not produce CO2. A flow may be CO2 (elementary flow) or the creation of a product (product flow) through a process may emit CO2. The flows (emissions) are then captured by a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method.

Process use and emit flows such as CO2. I guess you want to create a process and add specific flows to the inputs/outputs table of the respective process. Afterwards you can create the product system from the process and calculate the results.

I recommend the PET bottle tutorial from the openLCA website to get started with openLCA.

Hopefully, this helps.

Comments

Thanks for the answer